


A freakish deciphering

by InfinityPixel



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-23 12:44:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6116869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityPixel/pseuds/InfinityPixel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hey! You'd fit in perfectly here with us freaks!"</p><p>[A Gravity Falls fanfic mostly based around canon, except for the fact that the twins stayed in Gravity Falls instead of going back home. And Bill attempted Weirdmageddon, but was stopped, and banished to the second dimension once more...]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Triangulum entangulem

It was another tired day at the mystery shack. A group of tacky-looking tourists scoured the souvenirs; the weathervane creaked outside in the slight breeze.  
Mabel stood proudly at the counter, knowing that someone was DEFINATLEY going to buy a sham creation of her own. Over the years, she and Stan had managed out a deal. Anything that Mabel made, she would get the money from, so long as Stan set the price. And being the con artist he is; it was a good price. For Mabel at least. For the tourists, maybe not so much. Who would willing spend over two-hundred dollars on some pink-feathered, googly eyed “mythical creature”?  
Apparently, these people would.

They walked up to the counter. Mabel beamed. 

“Hey there! How can I help you?” She happily asked.  
The tourists, a grumpy-looking, middle-aged man and his just as awful-looking spouse gave her a glare.  
“Yeah, we were looking for the genius who thought they could fool us with THAT thing.” The man asked, jabbing his thumb backwards to gesture at the bizarre feathered monstrosity behind them.  
Her smile faded a little bit. How rude of them.  
“Fool?” She repeated back, slightly nervous. “Fool who?” She smiled anxiously and glanced to the side. God, she was still so bad at lying. It still made her feel bad, even if it would put two-hundred dollars in her pocket.

The middle aged man scoffed and the wife stuck her nose into the air as they walked out of the shack and drove off in their shitty RV.  
Mabel felt awful. She walked over to the feathered beast, picked it up and turned to put it into storage. Before she could take another step, a young man tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hey, where are you taking that? I was pretty keen on it!”

She turned, surprised to have anyone interested at all.  
“Oh, uh… I was just… changing the stock?” She smiled, trying to come up with an excuse. The man, was incredibly tall and thin, and was slightly hunched over. He had a surprisingly higher pitched voice that what you would expect a man like his stature to sound like. He had curly, bleach-blonde hair that covered his eyes entirely and wore a black hooded jumper with metallic gold eye patterns all over it, with some light, ripped jeans.  
“Oh, that’s a shame. Hey- Would I still be able to buy it?” He asked.

Mabel nodded happily. “Absolutely!” She felt slightly intimidated by his height, but was otherwise very happy someone took an interest in the thing she was carrying.  
He followed her to the counter. She bagged the thing in one of the many paper bags she had decorated in her spare time. The man showed signs of amusement by the amount of glitter and rhinestones. He took a wallet out of his back pocket and casually took out three hundred-dollar notes out of it.  
“Will this cover it?” He asked, flashing a smile. It caught her off guard; his teeth were all sharpened to a point, and one of them was even gold.  
“Yeah, yeah! Are… are you gonna want change?” She would feel bad if she took more than she was supposed to earn, even if Stan told her to do otherwise.  
But still, the man shook his head, his curly hair bouncing slightly.  
“Nah! You’ve earned the extra cash.” He laughed slightly. Something about it reminded Mabel of something or someone. She couldn’t put her finger on it.  
She cheerily waved him out of the shack. He gave a lazy wave back before walking off into the forest, out of sight. 

Sighing happily she slumped over the counter. Nice. Wait until Stan hears about this! As that thought crossed her mind, she caught a relative walking outside. She had trouble telling sometimes whether it was Dipper or Ford from a distance nowadays.  
Continuing to look, she could see it was actually the both of them. They were speaking frantically to each other and running into the forest. She dismissed it; they were probably just tracking something. Like… the leprecorn? Who knows? They did have to re-write the journals after all.

Wendy walked in through the door, looking behind her at the two running.  
“Hey Mabel! What’s goin’ on out there? Do you know?” She asked. “I mean, I’d ignore it usually, but I swear I heard them talking about Bill. Unless there’s’ just a bear named Bill or something? I ‘unno.”She shifted over to Mabel and sat on the counter lazily.

Mabel’s hands slid out from under her head, almost letting her fall down. Her jaw dropped slowly.  
That was it. That laugh from before. It reminded her of Bill. But- that was a person, not some triangle-shaped psychic demon!  
She quickly turned to Wendy. “Hey, it’s your shift now right?” “No but I can take the rest of yours’ if you’re gonna chase after them?”  
Mabel nodded. “Yeah. I think I know who they’re after.”  
Wendy waved her hand. “Go then. You gotta tell me what happened later though! That’ll pay up for this shift.”  
She smiled as she was quickly hugged by Mable, who then bolted out the screen door.

 

Stanford whacked the side of the detector.  
“Come on! This was working a second ago! Where is he?” He growled angrily at it. Dipper let his arms fall to his side, also holding a detector.  
“I lost it a while ago. Maybe it isn’t even Bill- maybe we’ve got PTSD or something more logical than this asshole coming back.” He sighed.  
Ford shook his head disappointedly.  
“No, he’s here I know it! You felt it too, didn’t you?!”  
“Well, yeah, but-“ He gave up. What was the point of arguing? If he wasn’t here, good. If he was back, then that would be catastrophic.  
Maybe.  
Dipper wasn’t actually sure of what would happen.

“Guys!! I know where he is!”

Mabel came bursting out through the forest trees. Ford turned excitedly to her. And then realized what that meant. It meant he was right. 

Bill Cipher was back.  
His blood ran cold. 

“What are we dealing with, Mabel?” He asked worriedly. Mabel took a second to catch her breath.  
“He’s… he looks human? Well… looks it, at least?” She panted, pulling her short fringe backwards. “And he brought my sculpture for way more than we priced it?!” She added. Dipper looked shocked.  
“You mean, he just walked in and out of the mystery shack?!” He exclaimed. Ford looked down at his feet.  
“If he’s in a human, or human-esque, body; then perhaps the barrier no longer affects him…”He thought aloud.  
Dipper brought his jacket closer to his face. “Oh man… this isn’t good at. All.” He gave Mabel a glance. She seemed offended. “Hey! This wasn’t my fault!” She retaliated. “It was a long time ago since we beat him AND he looked really different! If he was the old Bill he was before, you bet I would’ve kicked his triangle-shaped ass!” A possible squabble was stopped midway by Stanford’s raised hand. The twins fell silent. Dipper looked down at the detector in his hand. The pin on it was all the way up, waving wildly.  
He looked up and around, paranoid. 

“Where is he?” He whispered. Mostly to himself, but if the other two heard it, he supposed they could feel free to answer.  
Mabel scoured the area with absolute concentration. Eventually she pointed in a random direction. “There. Somewhere over there.” She hissed. Dipper and Ford looked at each other anxiously.

Mabel lead the way through a short span of woods. Due to the tension and paranoia in the air, it felt like hours for the three.

Eventually, they found themselves at a tent.

It was tall, wide, black and covered in pine needles. There was a black sign near the door, stood up like an easel, with gold lettering; “The Triangulum Entangulem”.  
The entrance curtain was a vibrant yellow, as if it was new fabric. Maybe it was? Was this place new?

Dipper and ford took one last look at their detectors (which had gone silent again) and put them in their pockets.

All three cautiously walked through the curtains...


	2. Welcome to the (freak) show!

It was circus-like environment, but everything was illuminated by dull yellow and cyan lights. Whatever wasn’t hit by the lights was eerily dark for the middle of the day.  
The group carried a hint of wariness; like the environment was somewhat dangerous.  
There were glass cabinets set around one corner in a maze-like shape, filled with disturbing and yet oddly fascinating things. Some things even felt… oddly familiar. Like they had been seen by the three somewhere before. 

There were tables and booths set up everywhere with a dull black and grey colour scheme. It made the light reflecting off everything seem extremely vibrant.

The group found themselves staring around the tent in both amazement and horror. Mabel broke their awe with a dramatic point towards a booth near the back.  
There was a black psychic booth; with a crystal ball near the front of it, illuminated by a bright, red light. The man they presumed to be the “new Bill” stood behind it.  
“Ha! There he is!” Mabel giggled excitedly as she pointed and bounced on her toes slightly. Being right was always great.  
In all honestly, she had given up on “focusing” in the forest and pointed in a random direction. She hadn’t actually expected to find anything. She calmed herself quickly. That last action probably made her stand out a HEAP. And that was not what Dipper and Ford needed here. 

She began to walk calmly towards the booth. Dipper grabbed her shoulder.  
“Are you crazy?! Why are you walking over there?!” He hissed. She shrugged in reply. “I ‘unno. He doesn’t… seem the same as he was before. And besides, he’ll just know me from earlier. If he sees either of you two, he might…” She glanced at the floor and then back up at her brother.  
“He might hurt you or something.” She moved his hand off her shoulder softly and continued over.

She was stopped midway by a woman dressed in flashy bright pink clothing. She was reminiscent of a circus performer. She wore a pink unitard with a darker pink cape. She had white thigh-high boots and long matching gloves. Her short, bob-cut hair was white too, but it had vibrant pink streaks through the front and back. What was really most notable about her was her overly large front teeth; which were also very oddly gaped. Some were sharp and some were at such angles she couldn’t properly close her mouth. They stood out especially because of her poor, bright, pink lipstick choice.

“Hey now! What the ‘hell are you doin’ in here?! We haven’t even set out fliers yet! We ain’t ready!”

She seemed more worried about not being ready for visitors to this place than pushing her out of it. She flung her hand in the air in worry, and paced around in a circle.  
“Uh, ok, ok, ok…?” She made eye contact with Mabel. “Uh, why are ya here ‘doll?” She asked nervously.  
Mabel smiled awkwardly back and pointed to “Bill’s” booth. “I’m here to see him, actually.” She laughed uncomfortably in this situation.  
“Oh, right, right, right. Sure. He’s probably just taking more in… yeah…”  
“-Although…” The pink girl gave her a one-over. “I don’t see anythin’ weird about’cha…” She glared suspiciously at Mabel as she nervously walked past.

 

Upon closer inspection, the booth that the blonde boy sat in was actually very intricately decorated. It was wooden, painted black, with carvings of ritualistic shapes on it… and a symbol up the top Mabel found VERY familiar. -A triangle with an eye in the centre, surrounded by a blank wheel. 

“That’s the Cipher wheel. Cool, huh?” He spoke to her, breaking her utter surprise. 

“Wha- uh, yeah! Neat-o!” She stuttered. “I’ve… actually seen it before! That’s cool too huh?”  
She leaned casually over the booth flirtatiously. If it was Bill, he wouldn’t be too keen on that. If it wasn’t, she’d probably end up with another boyfriend; or a slap in the face. Either way, things would work out semi-okay. He leaned forward to meet her, sharp teeth glistening in a wide grin.  
“Yeah? You been living in Gravity falls a long time then, huh?” He asked. Was he legitimately interested or trying to test her knowledge? Was he trying to figure out who she was? They hadn’t yet exchanged names officially anyway. 

“SO! Uh!-” She blurted out. “-You don’t seem too surprised to see me here!” She said questioningly. He smirked, nodding his head slightly. “Yeah, well that’s because I knew this would happen.”  
She wasn’t too surprised. This was a really weird place, after all. What was this place anyway? It could challenge the Mystery Shack!  
“You… knew this would happen?” She slowly repeated back. He nodded, with an air of sarcasm around him. “Yep. What kinda place do you think this is?! A normal place for normal… people?” He questioned her.  
“You’re probably the sort we’d find in an audience rather than someone who’d willing speak to freaks like us. But… I could…” He coughed in hesitation.  
“I could always, uh, be wrong.” He struggled with the sentence. “So what’s your name, kid?” He asked with a sly smile on his face. 

That last sentence, it was WAY too reminiscent of Bill to really be anyone else. Thank fuck she’d changed her appearance so drastically through her teenage years.  
She was hardly recognizable now. Even Dipper could pass as someone else, comparing him now to his twelve-year-old self; even if his style hadn’t changed too much.  
She quickly thought of some fake names.  
“Oh, I’m… I’m Elsa and.. uh.. yeah!” She rubbed the back of head. She was still bad at lying.  
“Huh.” He scoffed. “So… ELSA. You don’t happen to have a twin brother, do you? I feel like we’ve met before…” He grinned widely while asking the question.  
It made Mabel very uncomfortable.

“Actually I’m the older brother. But that’s fine. We get that a lot.” Dipper walked up from behind, managing to help the situation slightly.  
The man only laughed in reply. Manically. He couldn’t stop laughing! 

Dipper pushed his sister behind him in order to protect her.

“ _ **PLEASE**! Pine tree you’re fucking **hilarious**!!_ ”  
Bill managed to say between his heavy laughter.  
“You can’t fool me you two! This is GOLD!” He leaned backwards in his chair, almost falling off. 

“ _You know who **I am** and I know who **you are**._ You just HAD to follow me didn’t you?!” He asked through a hideous grin. 

Dipper took the detector out of his pocket again. The needle on it could’ve almost flown off it weren’t behind a plastic cover. He gave both the detector and Bill a dirty look. “Maybe we just couldn’t help ourselves.” He replied darkly. Bill only replied with further evil cackling. “Oh man…” He wiped a tear from his eye, (which couldn’t be seen. Just hair moving, really). He sighed, letting his laughing fit come to an end. “Don’t mind all of that! I just forgot how hilarious you humans are!” He gave a slow sarcastic clap. “You took back the falls. Good job!” He gave the twins a menacing smile. “But that was just a little while back wasn’t it? Things have changed; I’ve stayed the same, good times.”

The “performers” Mabel had walked past before, gathered around them, pushing Ford to the center with the twins.

“Hey- I know I said you looked ‘normal’ before…” Bill grinned, standing up from his seat slowly.  
“-But that was just a jest. All three of you would fit in PERFECTLY here!”

He walked over to them.  
He forced Mabels’ right eye open with his fingers, observing the pupil shrink in the light behind him. He brushed Dippers fringe back, grinning menacingly.  
Dipper grabbed his hand and shoved it away in disgust; Bill only seemed amused. 

And finally- he swaggered over to Stanford who had kept the same melancholy expression since he was grabbed by Bill’s friends.

“Stanford! I think you ESPECIALLY would make a GREAT spectacle!”


	3. If you could have anything...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill and Ford have a little private chat.

Stanford didn’t even seem taken aback. 

He knew what Bill wanted. He wanted reactions. An audience. At least now he was doing things in a slightly more respectable manner than taking over and destroying the world.  
He smirked, putting his hands in the air and twiddling his 6 fingered hands.  
“Oh no… Looks like you’ve really got us now.” He sarcastically remarked, rolling his eyes. “Honestly, Bill? What is it you expect to accomplish with this… ridicule?” Ford lowered his hands, placing them on his waist.

Bill paused for a moment only to laugh in reply. The assorted people behind him began to snicker, before Bill shot them a glare and they fell dead silent.  
He walked closer to Ford, poking his index finger into Ford’s cheek and wrapping his other arm around his shoulders in a “buddy”-like fashion.  
“I’m just teasing ‘ya Fordsy! You know that’s all I do!”

Dipper rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.  
“Yeah, try not to be so serious about the time-altering space demon that tried to kill us all’s return.”  
Bill turned to face him, dragging Stanford with him.

“This kid gets it! He always has!” He grinned widely at his old acquaintance. 

Dipper turned away from him. Bills’ smile dropped immediately.  
He snapped his fingers, which ignited a small blue flame in that split second, and two of the performers behind him came up and grabbed both of Dippers arms. They were dressed in red and black clown-like outfits and instead of a face only had one giant eye. They forced him towards Bill.  
“Listen here, KIDDO. You may not know what I’M up to; but I dunno what YOU’RE up to either.”  
Dipper had his head turned away so Bill grabbed his head with his hand and jerked it towards him, bringing their faces close.  
“There’s nothing completely nefarious for once! You should be happy! …But instead you’d rather mess up everything huh?”

They just glared at each other for a moment.

“…You’re pretty good at messing things up, though. I’ll give you that.”  
Bill flashed a wide smile, his one golden tooth illuminated eerily by the red light behind him.

Now that was IT. Dipper had had it. Bill had messed with them enough before and now that’s’ all he was going to do again? What would this “not completely nefarious” freak-show even DO? It must have some larger, more evil purpose!  
He kicked and squirmed in the cyclops performers grasp, only for them to slam him heavily on the floor. 

He lay there; unconscious, head bleeding slightly. It wasn’t until there was a visible pool that Bill and his companions started laughing; and Mabel and Ford shows true signs of worry and concern. What they were more worried of themselves was being held back like Dipper was, so they didn’t dare move for the time being.

Bill moved over to the unconscious teen and picked him up with seemingly effortless ease. He held him under the arms, making him look like some sort of limp puppet or doll. That may have been his exact intentions, as he proudly beamed at Stanford and Mabel; reminiscent of a cat proudly showing you a dead mouse it had caught.

And oh yes, he was proud. It wasn’t even he who had done this! He was merely the one who ordered it to happen. Bill was very excited to show off his power. Even if he had lost some abilities coming into a human form, he still had control. And despite chaos being what he truly wanted above all else; being in control was FUN.  
He tossed Dipper’s limp body towards Mabel like it was nothing. This effortless throw deceived her, as she tried to catch him, only to be knocked to the ground by his weight. And luckily, she did not get knocked out. She sat up, slowly. Mabel was speechless. How that was so quickly and efficiently done- Bill seemed more like a mafia gang leader to her now than a demon.  
She couldn’t get up; she felt somewhat weak- sickened by Ciphers’ presence. So she remained there on the stone ground, attempting to wake up her brother.  
She was panicking. 

-

This was not Bills’ original plan. But the tables turned, and the overall effect was the same; the twins were both out of the way, surprisingly easily.  
Perhaps they had all grown soft with his dangerous presence absent.  
He took this chance to speak with Stanford- that was his original aim after all! He took two confident strides towards him, arms folded behind his back.

“Now! Stanford! We’ve ‘gotta couple of things to discuss!” 

He clapped his hands together in front, rubbing them together mischievously, with a grin just as untrustworthy. However his smile lowered slightly as he “looked around” from left to right. His smile returned.  
“-Perhaps somewhere more private?”

Ford flinched instantaneously; but even despite this, Bill hit him hard across the head. He knew it was obviously going to take a little more than that to knock THE Stanford Pines out of consciousness. He stretched out his arms, cracking his knuckles and got down on one knee to meet Ford at ground level.  
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way, ‘Fordsy.” He whispered through gritted teeth.  
Ford pushed himself up from the ground. “What could you possibly want from me now, Cipher?” He replied just as bitterly. Bill stuck out his hand.

“Shake, and you can find out!” 

Ford was reluctant. But sadly looking over at his niece and nephew on the floor he got up to meet Bill. Shakily, he returned his hand gesture. In this exact moment, Bill changed his mind once more. If his entire plan had been compromised up until now, why should he even bother sticking to it at all?! He grabbed Stanfords’ wrist and pulled upward on his arm, dislocating it from its socket. Now that was more like it. He smiled as he saw the split second of sheer pain and horror across the old mans’ face before his eyes rolled backwards and he blacked out.

He awoke in the dreamscape. 

Like usual; it was a field, he was surrounded by tall grass; a UFO was crashed and dismantled in the distance. Everything was illuminated by the orange setting sky.  
“Of course…” He muttered under his breath. 

It wasn’t unlike Bill to change his mind like that. Perhaps he couldn’t be bothered doing anything else. Perhaps he was just in an especially sadistic mood today.  
Who would ever be able to guess?  
Bill appeared behind him, in his usual triangular form. 

“Heh, now THIS is more like it! Just like old times!” He drew closer, once again wrapping his arm around him.

“What do you want, Bill?”

“Oh! Straight to the point! I see!”  
He let go of Ford and tipped his hat. “Well, it’s more a matter of what YOU want!”

Ford shook his head, looking down at the ground. “No, Bill. It’s never about what I want. Theres’ always a catch. It’s always about you.” Bill looked sarcastically taken aback, eye growing large and sparkling. Blinking about ten times in a second he replied with a hint of fake adoration. “Aw, you~!” He closed his eye “blushing”. “Always about me... you’re too sweet. -But of COURSE I get some kind of benefit from this!” He mused. “Who do you think I am?!” He asked rhetorically, laughing.  
“Listen- I want you to join my freak-show!” He said finally. 

Ford did not seem too impressed. The only reason, he assumed, that Bill wanted him to join was to mock him further of his anomaly. He looked down at his hands, waving each finger down into a fist one by one.  
Bill could see the aggravation building. He swooped in closer again, resting an elbow on his shoulder.  
“Look, Sixer; I don’t care what you want in return; I just want something remotely HUMAN and GENUINE in my list of shows and acts!”  
Ford only glared at him in response.  
“Oh come ON!” Bill rolled his eye. “I’m not asking you to sell your soul or kill your brother or anything like that! …For once.” He coughed at the last part, covering where his mouth could possibly be placed, with his fist.  
“You know I can give you WHATEVER you want, and you would turn that down for your PRIDE?!” Bill turned slightly red. He threw his hands up in the air in frustration, words echoing in the vast, unending field.

There was silence.

“Hm! Your family is FULL of interesting characters; especially yourself!”  
He laughed, calming himself down. This was incredibly forced, but he didn’t exactly want Ford to lose interest. 

Ford shook his head. “Maybe if you want to talk BUSINESS, you can speak with my brother instead.” He growled back in reply. Bill turned a brighter red than before, eye blackening; iris glowing.  


“ _LISTEN, **BUD**. I ASK A **SIMPLE** FAVOUR. AND YOU’RE NOT EVEN WILLING TO DO **THAT**?!_ ”

Ford shook his head more aggressively. 

"Of course not! I will not allow myself, or my family to be ridiculed or looked down on by you... you MONSTERS!"

Bill turned completely red. He snapped his fingers and the field disappeared. 

Ford awoke to a pissed-off looking human Bill. He was being held in a dip, with his dislocated arm hanging limp at his side. It was numb for the second but he could already feel the pain creeping in quite quickly. He held his arm steady and broke free of Bill’s grasp. Mustn’t have even been a minute while he was blacked out.

Before he completely got away, Bill grabbed his dislocated arm and snapped it back into place. The sudden unexpected pain threw Stanford to his knees, swearing under his breath. Bill laughed in response once more.

“You should’a joined us when you had the chance, Stanford! Now we’re playing a _different_ game…”

He grinned wickedly as Ford helped Mabel carry Dipper out of the tent, and further away from the laughter and mockery he could hear for meters before it completely faded from his hearing and mind.


End file.
